Lecture Notes: Setting Goals for Your Team

Introduction

• Speaker: Sri Shari, Head of Data Infrastructure at Robinhood
• Engineering management role focused on supporting internal teams, career development, and strategic planning
• Background in data infrastructure, previously at Yelp for 8 years

Data Infrastructure at Robinhood

• Mission: Build foundational data platforms used across the company
• Work involves big data technologies, foundational tools, and platforms for engineers, data scientists, and analysts

Setting Goals for the Team

Philosophy and Approach

• Inputs Required:
  • Senior Leadership: Initiatives from company or organization
  • Team's Customers: Other internal teams within the company
  • Team Members: Engineers and managers with contextual insights
• Process:
  • Collect inputs from these sources
  • Utilize inputs in the planning process

Example of a Planning Cycle

• Gathering Inputs:
  • Leadership inputs usually communicated down from the company
  • Customer inputs gathered via periodic surveys (e.g., feature suggestions, satisfaction ratings)
  • Team inputs gathered through surveys and brainstorming sessions
• Planning:
  • Consolidate data into a single spreadsheet
  • Stack rank priorities based on intuition, judgment, and gathered data
  • Estimate project sizes and determine what can be realistically achieved
  • Incorporate stretch goals to motivate the team
• Output: Team roadmap, often in OKR (Objectives and Key Results) format or a roadmap format

Prioritizing Projects

• Criteria Considered:
  • Linked to KPIs (Key Performance Indicators): Reliability, scalability, security
  • Determine which KPIs projects aim to move
  • Portfolio approach to balance different types of projects
  • Prioritize within portfolios based on data-driven and intuition-driven insights

Handling Tech Debt

• Communication: Be honest with the team about the reality and impact of tech debt
• Motivation:
  • Tie tech debt to its impact on the team (e.g., reducing on-call burdens)
  • Align project interests with individual career growth
  • Communicate long-term benefits of addressing tech debt
• Project-Person Fit: Assign projects based on team members' interests and learning opportunities

Evaluating Stretch Goals

• Capacity Planning:
  • Use t-shirt size estimates for projects
  • Calculate team capacity and determine what is beyond capacity as stretch goals
• Team Involvement: Get buy-in from the team before setting stretch goals
• Purpose of Stretch Goals: Encourage aspirational work and drive more value

Dealing with Unmet Goals

• Anticipating Risks: Regular check-ins and assessments of project status
• Retrospectives: Conduct honest reviews to understand what went wrong and learn from mistakes
• Deadline Flexibility: Acknowledge that most deadlines are arbitrary and focus on learning and improvement

Feedback and Reflection

• Interview Structure: The conversation should be structured with a balance of philosophy and practical examples
• Admitting Mistakes: Demonstrates growth and learning from past experiences
• Conversational Approach: Facilitates better empathy and understanding

Conclusion

• Emphasize the importance of clear communication, team involvement, and continuous improvement